Egyptian Archaeology at KHD: Save Our Site

Hello and let us introduce ourselves: we are Dr Lawrence Owens and Janet Johnstone working on behalf of the Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organisation (ECHO) on an archaeology rescue project at Kafr Hassan Dawood (KHD) in the Nile Delta, Egypt. Lawrence is the director of the project and both Lawrence and Janet are directors of ECHO  https://e-c-h-o.org

Dr Lawrence Owens, Bioarchaeology Research Fellow, University of Winchester and University of South Africa (UNISA). KHD 2019

We are raising funds for an archaeology rescue mission at the ancient Egyptian site of Kafr Hassan Dawood (KHD) in the Nile Delta, Egypt.

KHD is one of the most important ancient sites in Egypt and contains hundreds of burials from the prehistoric period through to the Roman era. Only a portion of the original site is left and is under renewed and continual threat.

Most of what we know about this site comes from the cemeteries, which expanded as the population grew, the economy changed and new/luxury items began to appear, seeming to suggest the emergence of a new social structure. But while we know quite a lot about the pottery and other graves goods, very little attention has been focused on the bodies themselves. Looking at the bones will enable us to understand what the people were like physically – their height, their weight, where they came from, and the illnesses they suffered from and injuries sustained, their childhoods, their activities and their diets. We will be able to mark the changes over time reflecting the major transformations of the 4th-3rd millennium BC.

Our 2019 pilot season revealed numerous interments on the ancient floodplain buried in flexed, contracted positions with grave goods including pottery, beads and the remains of coffins.

Our work had just begun when COVID hit. We have been unable to get back to KHD until this year. Meanwhile, Egypt is passing through another era of transformation with a population boom, agricultural intensification and the expansion of towns and villages. KHD and many other sites in Egypt have been placed on the Supreme Council of Antiquities’ (SCA) endangered site register. We are really worried that KHD will be engulfed as the water table rises, the modern cemetery expands and the need for agricultural land transforms the surrounding desert scrubland into fields.

Unless we act now the remaining cemeteries and the settlement site will be destroyed. We urgently need 25,000 GBP to pay a team of local workers, to fly 4 colleagues from the UK and USA to Egypt, to rent accommodation, to feed everyone, pay for survey services and provide excavation gear for the season.

ALL THE ACADEMICS ARE WORKING FOR FREE AND DO NOT RECEIVE A SALARY FOR THEIR WORK.

PLEASE HELP US SAVE KHD TODAY.
ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY IS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED...NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL.


THANK YOU.

Find out more about ECHO and our work at https://e-c-h-o.org